Monday, January 14, 2008

Thursday Jan 10, 2008

AM- 30 miles (4:10) Cheyenne Canon CRUD Tempo-Stratton-Bear Creek-Monument Loops (Roclite)PM- 5 miles (:41) North Monument Loop (sz 11 Slingshots)I woke up at 4:30am feeling pretty tired and it took a while to feel good, especially with the colder temps. Kyle didn't have to be to work at 9am like me, so I was flying solo this morning.

There was a big group at the CRUD tempo workout, but the ice and snow on both the paved and gravel roads were really bad. The Inov-8s were giving me pretty poor traction. As a result, I did the climb in 41:04, but got to the gate in 28:40, so it actually wasn't horribly slow. There were about 6 inches of fresh snow on High Drive, though.

On the run back I spent a lot of time looping through Stratton and Bear Creek and then added on a North Loop to make it the full 30 miles. I'm so lucky to have a job where I can show up a half hour late in order to accommodate spur-of-the-moment decisions like that.

I did the second run in mid-afternoon after getting off work. It was a pretty standard North Loop, but lately I've been questioning the need for that second run when I go for a 4+ hour run in the morning. I think there's some use when the weather is warm enough for it to be barefoot, but this time of year when I'm still just tooling around in shoes I can't think of any real benefit other than to inhibit my recovery (which obviously isn't a benefit).

After the run, Kyle and I went and did some major shopping at the local food co-op and I even picked up a very cheap futon mattress to contribute to the Recovery Room---a great little addition.

The ideal in the Lieh-Tzu is a state, not of withdrawal, but of heightened perceptiveness and responsiveness in an undifferentiated world. My mind concentrated and my body relaxed, bones and flesh fused completely, I drifted with the wind East or West, like a leaf from a tree or a dry husk, and never knew whether it was the wind that rode me or I that rode the wind. -The Book of Lieh-Tzu